1037 - Is there a way to make a splash screen while an application loads?

by - Joseph Ganci

Is there any way to bring up a preloading graphic that will display while the Authorware file downloads over a LAN?

Update:

Chris Swenson of DazzleTech wrote a screen splash loader called DazzleRun that is available in the Goodies\DazzleTech folder of AW 6 and AW 6.5. It is written in Borland Delphi and will very quickly show the image of your choice while it loads your AW file in the background. It automatically closes the splash screen when your AW piece is loaded.

Original Answer:

Some will use a separate piece, written in a different language that quickly loads a banner and calls the WinAPI to stay on top of all other applications. Many opt to use Flash for this. It can wait a certain number of seconds, then quit. Of course, if you wanted to make it more sophisticated, you could see about setting up a communication path between Authorware and the other piece, so that when Authorware is completely loaded, it sends a signal "I'm ready!" at which point the other piece quits.

Putting the Xtras on the end user's machine will speed things up. Another thing that will speed things up is to make sure that the Xtras on the drive (or on the server) only include the ones you need. Many are confused by which Xtras are needed and load them all, even if they're only using one or two images types or one sound type.

There's a free download in the download area that will allow you to find only the Xtras you need to load in the student's network or local drive. I've seen dramatic results in speeding up load time. In one case, it went from over a minute down to about six seconds. Maybe it will help if you haven't considered it already. We use it ourselves all the time.